Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) advised HQ Equita (“HQ Equita”) and its investment platform, The Packaging Group (“TPG”), on the acquisition of a majority stake in packing machine specialist WOLF Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH (“WOLF”). The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Having also acquired majority stakes in packaging machine specialists FAWEMA and HDG in 2018, HQ Equita further strengthens TPG with WOLF’s acquisition. Going forward, WOLF, FAWEMA and HDG will operate as a united corporate group, developing specific packaging solutions.
HQ Equita is HQ Capital’s private equity direct investment arm, founded in 1992. It is an established and trusted partner for middle-market companies, with approximately US$1bn of capital invested in over 30 small- and medium-sized enterprises in the German-speaking DACH region.
WOLF is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of vertical form fill and seal packaging machinery serving the food, industrial and chemicals markets. Headquartered in Germany, it has more than 200 employees working across its nine sites.
The WFW Germany team advising HQ Equita was led by Munich Corporate Partner Dr Simon Preisenberger, with Hamburg Partners Verena Scheibe and Jörg Walzer advising on tax matters, and Dr Andreas Wiegreffe and Dr Stefan Kilgus on the employment and finance law aspects of the transactions respectively. They were supported by Managing Associates Dr Nicolaj Faigle (Tax) and Marian Peter Wieczorke (Corporate), Senior Associates Silvia Rava (Corporate) and Nora Fleischhauer (Employment), and Associates Christopher Grawe (Corporate), Richard Henshaw (Employment), Roman Schneider (Banking & Finance) and Verena Weider (Tax).
Simon commented: “We are very pleased to have successfully advised long-standing client HQ Equita on another strategic acquisition that further strengthens their leading market position. That they chose WFW once again to assist them on this transaction demonstrates our excellent reputation for M&A expertise, reinforced by the seamless cooperation between our legal and tax practitioners”.
